Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati recently spoke in vaguely threatening tones of converting to Buddhism. Issuing an open challenge to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, she said if the party did not change its attitude towards Dalits, adivasis and other backward people, she would forsake her Hindu faith for Buddhism.
Mayawati also spoke of Bhim Rao Ambedkar, who converted to Buddhism from Hinduism just two months before his death in 1956. Following in his footsteps, Dalits have been adopting Buddhism to this day, but the rate of conversion has dropped considerably in the past decade.
The Trend of Conversion to Buddhism Started in 1956
Ambedkar adopted Buddhism on 14 October 1956 in Nagpur. In a way, converting to a different religion was a political statement for the leader. Born into a Dalit family in Madhya Pradesh, he had suffered the trials of untouchability since birth.
Many years prior to his conversion, he had said, “I may have been born a Hindu, but I will not die a Hindu.” He followed through in 1956, and thus began the trend of Dalits converting to Buddhism.
Rate of Conversions Slowing Down
According to an IndiaSpend report published in June 2017, while people continue to adopt Buddhism, the number of religious conversions has been slowing down.
The report states that just 13 percent of all Buddhists in the county were born into the faith, the rest 87 percent are all converts.
As per the 1991-2001 Census, the Buddhist population increased by 24.53 percent. However, in the 2001-2011 Census, that number was reduced to 6.13 percent. At present, there are around 85 lakh Buddhists in the country, around 0.8 percent of the population.
The decrease in Buddhist population between 2001-2011 is second only to the drop in followers of Jainism.
Situation in UP
It is noteworthy that UP is one of the states, with the biggest drop in numbers, the state where Mayawati has been Chief Minister three times. Between 2001 to 2011, the number of people converting to Buddhism dropped by about 26 percent.
The largest number of conversions have been in Maharashtra, followed by West Bengal, with Uttar Pradesh coming in third. In fact, 77 percent of the county’s Buddhist population is based in Maharashtra.
Renewed Trend of Activism, Politics and Religious Conversions?
Dalits converting to Buddhism has often been viewed as a political statement.
In fact, the IndiaSpend report states that each time Dalit activism catches momentum, the rate of religious conversions to Buddhism goes up.
This trend was visible in 1956, then in the 1980s and 1990s, when conversion to Buddhism was used as a form of protest. In 1984, the Bahujan Samaj Party was formed, and with it came an increase in the number of Buddhists.
In keeping with this trend, the BSP government in UP played up the Buddhist imagery during its tenure, with parks, colleges and even new names for cities favoring Buddhist heritage.
Insiders believe that there is constant introspection among the Dalit community on whether conversion to Buddhism is being used exclusively as a political tool, and this fear ultimately gets reflected in the religious conversion rates.
(Data sources: India Spend and Census India.)
(This article was originally published in Quint Hindi.)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)